Guess what? Something totally amazing just happened! They uncovered a super ancient bird skeleton right by the Chesapeake Bay, and get this – it’s nearly 12 million years old! This bird called a gannet, is similar to those big sea birds you might see hanging out by the bay today.
Now, here’s the really wild part. Bird bones are usually crazy delicate and don’t last long, especially for millions of years. But this time, they found an entire bird skeleton, and that’s seriously mind-blowing!
Imagine Dr Stephen Godfrey’s excitement! He works at the Calvert Marine Museum, and he’s saying he’s never ever seen a whole bird skeleton like this in that area before. It’s a rarity, like finding treasure. And let me tell you, it’s a big deal!
Dr Godfrey is all about this because the bird skeleton is like a window into the past. It can teach us a bunch of cool stuff about what life was like around the bay a super long time ago, like a sneak peek into history.
Now, the bird skeleton isn’t just sitting around somewhere. Nope, it’s found a new home in a museum where everyone can check it out. They’re planning to show it off, like putting it in a spotlight so people can learn and be amazed by this ancient wonder.
Chesapeake Bay has these cliffs along the shore that stretch for about 20 miles. And guess what? These cliffs hold secret treasures from a really old time called the Miocene era, around 12 million years ago. So, it’s like a treasure chest full of ancient fossils and stuff.
Just to show you how cool this place is, a little while back, a volunteer at the Calvert Marine Museum found a skull of a super old dolphin that’s 15 million years old! And here’s the cherry on top – during Christmas, a 9-year-old girl found an enormous tooth from a megalodon (yep, those gigantic prehistoric sharks) at Calvert Cliffs State Park. How cool is that?
So, if you’re up for an adventure, you can visit the Calvert Marine Museum any day. It’s like stepping into a time machine and exploring all these incredible things from the bay’s past. Seriously, it’s a blast!
